Electric attack – 4th episode
The VW subsidiary Porsche will found a joint venture for electric super sports cars with the Croatian manufacturer Rimac. The Bugatti brand is part of the deal.
Top performance remains the goal
Rumors of a sale of the luxury brand Bugatti to the Croatian manufacturer Rimac, which specializes in high-performance versions of e-vehicles, have already haunted journals and the Internet. It is now known that the VW subsidiary Porsche and Rimac have agreed on a joint venture into which Bugatti is to be incorporated: Bugatti-Rimac. The foundation is planned for the fourth quarter of 2021. The joint venture will have its headquarters near Rimac in Zagreb. The VW Group as the current owner will bring Bugatti into the joint venture.
In this way, VW is pushing a corporate brand off via Porsche, which so far has only made small profits. Under the direction of Rimac, the production costs of the vehicles, in particular, should decrease.
Porsche hopes to be able to benefit from Rimac’s know-how in the future. In particular, the ability to develop technological solutions more easily and more cheaply than before is an important advantage of the deal for Porsche.
The Chiron Super Sport is likely to be the last Bugatti without electrification
Redevelop top performance
The last Bugatti model with pure combustion technology will be the Chiron Super Sport with 1600 hp. In the last quarter of 2022, it will be delivered under the new Bugatti-Rimac brand at a price of € 3.2 million or more.
Due to the ever-stricter CO2 standards, an increase in performance at Bugatti-Rimac should only be possible with the help of electrical drive energy. Rimac could help achieve electrical performance beyond the 2000 hp barrier. The usefulness of such vehicle services may, however, be questioned.
Mate Rimac does not have the prospect of immediate conversion of the Bugatti brand from gasoline to electric drive. «I think the combustion engine will be used at Bugatti for a while», he explains. «Wherever it makes sense, however, we think about strong electrification of the models. And in a completely new way. But in the medium term, Bugatti will also drive purely electrically.»
